firewithinfandomcom-20200215-history
David Rain/David Merriman
Introduction David Rain is the main character of the series. He goes by a number of names. To the Pennykettle dragons, he is known as "The David". He is able to trasform into the polar bear, Ingavar, who is also known as Nanukapik. When he is illumined to the dragon Grockle, they are known as "G'lant", and the dragons of the New Wearle always call David by this name. David was introduced at the beginning of The Fire Within, when he began to lodge at 42, Wayward Crescent, the home of Liz and Lucy Pennykettle and their dragons. At this time, he was believed to be a human student from Blackburn, who was beginning a Geography course at Scrubbley College. However, over the course of the books it has been revealed that David has much more complex origins. Name: David Rain Birthdate: Unknown Current Age: 25as of Dark Fire Deathdate:''Valentine's Day Feb. 14, unknown year '''Parents:Arthur Merriman (Creator), Elizabeth Pennykettle (Wife of Arthur) Current Significant Other: Suzanna "Zanna" Martindale Past Significant Other(s): Sophie Prentice Children: Alexa(with Zanna ) First Appeared In: The Fire Within Last Appeared In: Dark Fire Special Dragon(s): "Zookie" GadzooksGollygosh "Golly" Golighty& G'reth & Groyne '''Bloodline: '''Exists in three different universes, Fain universe Ki:me:ra, Fain universe Co:pern:ica and Earth. David's Human Personality Throughout The Fire Within, it is not suspected that David is anything other than human. Questions are raised in Icefire, but his different origins only begin to become clear in Fire Star. The human David is a curious, sceptical, friendly and laid-back 20 year old (as The Fire Within begins) Geography student. He is described as having blue eyes and a mop of brown hair, which Chris D'Lacey says he used to be able to boast. D'Lacey also says, in the author note of The Fire Within, that "David Rain is me". David has a kind and caring spirit, shown by his concern for the injured squirrel Conker and the polar bears. He keeps a one-eyed teddy bear named Winston, whom (he believes) he has had since childhood. Bonnington the cat often sleeps on David's bed and David has been known to engage him in one-way conversation. David also forms a close bond with Lucy, who is eleven years old at the start of The Fire Within and idolises David. He helps Lucy to find Conker and writes her a story called Snigger and the Nutbeast. He cares deeply for Lucy and tries to protect her. David is given a special dragon at the beginning of The Fire Within. Gadzooks is a writing dragon who helps David to write his story. David as a human is confused about his relationship with Gadzooks, who he talks to and imagines writing things, but can't accept him as being anything other than a "pot thing". In Icefire, David gains a second special dragon, G'reth, who is a wishing dragon created by Lucy. In Fire Star, he makes a dragon himself, who he names Gollygosh Golightly (Golly) an turns out to be a natural healing dragon. (David is also the master of a fouth dragon, Groyne. However, this dragon is different to the others. He is not a Pennykettle dragon, but is a piece of narwhal tusk, previously owned by the shaman, Dr Bergstrom. He has the ability to hold himself in the image of Godith, the dragon who create the universe. When Dr Bergstrom is injured at the end of Fire Star, Groyne sets out to find David. After David's death, he returns to Waywad Crescent and becomes known as one of David's dragons. However, this relationship is one that is more representative of David as Fain than David as a human.) David has a prejudice towards Goths, judging and slightly fearing Zanna (who is introduced in Icefire) at first. He also finds it difficult to accept the dragon legends, his ability to alter matter and the other strange things that happen around him. It takes magical inervention from Gwilanna in Icefire to allow him to see the dragons clearly and accept this as normal, and even following this he shows a lot of scepticism. In The Fire Within, David meets and begins to date Sophie Prentice, and is upset when she moves to Africa in Icefire. However, in her absence, he falls for Zanna. David is believed to come from Blackburn and to have a friend whose father Brian Donnelly owns a pest control company. He also cooks a good lasagne (though is unable to succeed with beans on toast), likes shepherd's pie, and dislikes rice pudding. He has a habit of peeling vegetables into the sink, which he says they always used to do at home. Link title David as Fain It is eventually revealed that David is not in fact human, but is Fain, created by Arthur's manipulation of matter. It is Arthur's speculation (and is likely true) that the Fain had plans for David to be born - human - as Liz and Arthur's son, but these plans were scuppered by Gwilanna, who separated the couple. The Fain's plans were altered, and they sent Gawain's claw to Arthur so that he would write David into existence. (It can be inferred that the story Arthur wrote is the same story that we read ourselves, from the beginning of The Fire Within to Liz telling David about Arthur in Fire Star.) David would then father Alexa, the part human, part Fain, part angel child who would fulfil the (as yet unclear) role that David was originally intended to fill. At the end of Fire Star, David is 'killed' when an evil Fain - later revealed to be Ix - throws an ice spear into David's heart. What the Ix does not realise, however, is that the ice is in fact Gawain's fire tear. The spear allows Gawain's auma to enter David, whose spirit leaves his body and 'heads for the light' - the open fire star to the Fain homeworld. As his spirit travels, it commingled and became one with the spirit of Ingavar, the polar bear who had just been killed by Grockle. This allows David to transform into Ingavar, who is revealed in The Fire Eternal to be the new Nanukapik. David then spent five years in Ki:mera, the Fain homeworld, where he becam fully aware of his origins and gained a lot of knowledge about the past, the dragons, and what is to come. He tells Zanna in Dark Fire that he wasn't aware that so much time had passed whilst he was in Ki:mera. (This makes it uncertain what age David is, if time passed differently in Ki:mera. It is also unclear whether or not he actually is dead.) Whist in Ki:mera, David acheived illumination, something much sough after by the Fain. It is the process of a Fain becoming one with a dragon. David was illumined to Grockle, and they became known as G'lant. On his return to earth, David first spent time prowling the ice as Ingavar, along with his Teller Avrel and his fighting bear Kailar. One of his first acts was to find the bear Thoran, who was also his old tutor, Dr Bergstrom. David/Ingavar engulfed Thoran in white fire (with his permission and understanding), which allowed David to take Dr Bergstrom's auma. David, after his time on Ki:mera, is no longer the confused Geography student we were first introduced to. He understands what is happening - dragon lore, the Old Wearle, the New Wearle, the purpose of Alexa. However, he is not all-knowing, as he does not know why Gawaine did not destroy the Ix or fully understand the legend of her and Teramelle, for example. Despite his knowledge and illumination, though, he is still essentially David Rain. He is devastated by the death of Sophie, is still in love with Zanna, loves and cares for Alexa, and maintains a close bond with the Pennykettles - who taught him what it was like to be human. Are you confused yet? There's more, reader. At the end of Dark Fire, David, Lucy, Arthur, Liz, Alexa, and Zanna are taken to the Universe of the Fain. Fire World is next. The Fire Within David moves in with the Pennykettles at 42 Wayward Crescent after seeing their "Lodgings Available" ad. He begins a Geography course at Scrubbley College whilst helping Lucy search for a one-eyed squirrel called Conker in their garden. He is given his first special dragon by Liz and names him Gadzooks. There used to be lots of squirrels in the Crescent, and Lucy named five of them: Ringtail, Birchwood, Cherrylea, Shooter and Conker. But then Henry Bacon - their next door neighbour - had the oak tree cut down and the squirrels left, migrating to the library gardens. However, Conker was left behind, because he couldn't travel with his reduced vision, and he was getting weaker because he was unable to find food. David and Lucy set a friendly trap for Conker, using acorns that David "the nutbeast" stole from the library gardens. This trap was set to rival Mr Bacon's, who was determined to find and remove the "pest". David also met another squirrel in the library gardens - a squirrel that smiled, and was aptly named Snigger by Gadzooks. Meanwhile, Lucy's 11th birthday was approaching and David didn't have the money to buy her a present. So he did as she often begged him to, and began to write a story, which he called Snigger and the Nutbeast and it charted the tale of Conker and the library gardens squirrels. David was given lots of help for this story by Gadzooks, who is a writing dragon. David discovered that if he closed his eyes he could picture Gadzooks in his head and the dragon would write helpful words on his pad. David began to write a scene in which Snigger brought Conker to the Pennykettles garden. But as he wrote it, the scene took place outside, with a very small time gap. This was the first real indication of David and Gadzooks' ability to alter dark matter through writing. Once they had Conker and Snigger safe, they took the squirrels to a wildlife hospital, where Sophie worked. Conker's eye was soon healed, but the vet discovered that Coker had a terminal kidney problem. And they also learned that grey squirrels were classed as pests so couldn't be released back into the wild. However, Sophie secreted the squirrels away, and she, David and the Pennykettles released them in the library gardens. A while later, the group returned to the gardens, but David was in a strange mood. He was very confused about what was going on with Gadzooks and the other dragons, and he had a feeling that something was wrong. Indeed it was - they came upon the body of Conker, who had died from his kidney problem. They buried him below an oak tree, where he could give something back to the earth. Mention was made of Gadzooks and David snapped, saying that Gadzooks wasn't real. He stormed away, and when he returned to the house that night, Liz sat him down and told him some more about legend of Gawain and Guinevere, some of which he had overheard on Lucy's birthday. She sang him to sleep in dragontongue, and when he awoke Liz was gone. Feeling very surreal, David went upstairs to the Dragon's Den, where the dragons had all come to and were watching over Gadzooks, who was about to cry his fire tear, feeling that David didn't love him. David was shown an instruction manual by the guard dragon, Gruffen, and using this he caught Zookie's fire tear and successfully restored it to his special dragon. After this, David was unsure about whether or not it was real. He tried to tell Sophie about it but she laughed him off. David could no longer see the dragons move and by Icefire had come to the conclusion that it had just been a very vivid dream. But he continued to rely on Gadzooks and was able to more easily accept him. Icefire In Icefire, David learns a lot more about dragon lore and the involvement of polar bears, and he comes to accept both 'big' dragons and the Pennykettle dragons as real. He is also given a second special dragon; G'reth, a wishing dragon created by Lucy. At the beginning of the book, Sophie moves away to study animals in Africa for three months. Meanwhile, David is set an essay by a guest tutor, Dr Bergstrom, who shows a lot of interest in the dragons. The essay is to prove whether or not dragons could ever have existed, and there is a prize of a free research trip to the Artic for the best essay. David ended up having an online conversation with Zanna, who he was wary of because she was a Goth, about his essay topic. Zanna showed a lot of interest in the dragons and visited no. 42 where David told her some more. Over the course of the book, David and Zanna (later revealed to have been in love with David for a while before the events of the book) get closer, eventually kissing, just as Sophie returned to tell David that she had been offered a three-year contract in Africa and she regretfully broke up with him. Meanwhile, the sibyl Gwilanna arrived, calling herself Aunty Gwyneth. David had to move to Henry Bacon's whilst Gwilanna stayed in his room. Mr. Bacon introduced David to the large collection of books and photographs he had about the Arctic, and lodger and landlord formed quite a bond (which developed further in Fire Star). Gwilanna had been drawn to Wayward Crescent because David had made a wish to know the secret of Gawain's fire tear. She was also around because an egg containing Liz's auma had been quickened, and she was to act as midwife. However, she found that David got in the way, thanks to his curiousity and confusion, and she had her dragon, Gretel, cast a spell on him that allowed him to see and speak to dragons, and accept this as commonplace. David also had a meeting with a publisher, Dilys Whutton, about Snigger, which she doesn't think is suitable for her 'list' but she would like David to write something else. However, Gwilanna sends Gretel who influences Dilys into agreeing to publish both Snigger and David's proposed saga about polar bears. Gwilanna was attempting to turn Liz's son into a real dragon, but the others would not allow this to happen. As the crucial moment arrived, many attempts were made to stop her, including a rugby tackle from David that saw him thrown beneath the floorboards, where rubble crashed on top of him. It is quite possible that David died at this point, but G'reth pushed the tooth of Ragnar down to David, and it landed in his hand, flooding David with the fighting bear's strength. Gwilanna was defeated, but the dragon had been born - but without fire. David, Zanna, David's dragons and the newly named Grockle went to Dr Bergstrom and he revealed the secret of the fire tear to David: Guinevere caught the tear and dropped it into a bone. She refused to give it to Gwilanna as promised, but tried to still take Gwendolen, the daughter Gwilanna had created for her. They fled, carried across the ocean by a brown bear called Thoran. But Gwilanna caught Gwendolen and caused a tidal wave that washed Guinevere and Thoran away. When they hit land, Guinevere released the tear, which fell into the ocean, and the ocean became ice - the polar ice cap. And when he touched the ice, Thoran's pelt turned cream, as he became the first polar bear. Later, after Grockle turned to stone and they had begun to redecorate David's room, David shared his kiss with Zanna. Sophie's return saw Zanna flee, furious with David.David was left melancholy and love lorn, singing tunelessly, and using Zanna's paintbrush to compete the decorations. But all worked out - on the day David was due to leave for the Arctic (paid for by his novels), Liz and Lucy arranged for Zanna, who had won the competition, to pick him up and the couple were reunited. Fire Star In Fire Star he starts writing a book called White Fire. In this book he also realizes that whatever he writes actually happens after he writes it. He can predict the future, but only seconds before it happens. At the end an Ix that took over an Inuik called Tootega stabbed David's heart with an ice spear, which turned out to be Gawain's fire tear. I'm here to set the record straight. David went to the arctic. While he was there, Gwillana stole Lucy and took her to a place called the Tooth of Ragnar. Gwillana's ultimate plan was to raise Gawain. Daivid did realize that he could predict the future, but anyway, at the arctic, Zanna broke up with David and they soon got back together. Then Saugus was 'killed' by an Inuit called Tootega who was controlled by the Ix. Gawain sank into the ocean. The polar bears took David's body away, and the book ends with Gadzooks writing 'G'lant' on his paper. That's the real story. The Fire Eternal David Rain lived at 4 Thoushall Road, Blackburn, MA, before he moved in with Elizabeth and Lucy Pennykettle in The Fire Within. In The Fire Eternal we discover that this address does not exist. In the 5 year period between David's death and the time of The Fire Eternal, we find out that Zanna birthed David's child and called her Alexa, and that David was still alive. Dark Fire, In Dark Fire David returns while Alexa is having a bath. At this time Zanna spots a rash on Alexa's back. David later reveals that Alexa is in fact an 'angel' - half Fain and half human, a messenger between the worlds - and the rash on her shoulders will grow into wings. David was planned by the Fain to be Liz and Arthur's son. But it never happened because of Gwilanna tricking Arthur in his younger years. So, the Fain decided that Arthur would write about David, and design him.In the end David, Zanna, Gwillan, Grockle, Alexa, Lucy, Liz, and a whole lot of dragons are transported to a dimension called co:pern:ica Inconsistencies In The Fire Within, David's previous lodgings are mentioned as having been in a dreadful state. However, it is later to be inferred that David moved to Wayward Crescent straight from his non-existent parents' home at 4, Thousall Road, Blackburn. Which can be true becuase that home was an alley between 3 and 5 Category:characters